The Canberra Commuter’s Spine: Why Your Daily Drive is Aggravating Your Lower Back

We have it pretty good here in Canberra compared to a lot of places. One of the first things people from the bigger cities often say to me is that it must be nice not to have to deal with heavy traffic. That is true, our roads are much more manageable than Sydney, but we still spend an awful lot of time sitting in our cars or riding the light rail.

Now, I do not believe that sitting down is inherently as bad for your health as some people like to claim. However, I absolutely recognise that spending long periods sitting in cars is a very common trigger for lower back pain in many of the clients I treat.

Sitting Directly into Your Pain Triggers

The core of the problem is that people often sit directly into their pain. What I mean by this is that if a client has a known flexion intolerance, meaning their back does not handle spinal flexion well, they will almost always sit in a slumped, flexed posture. On the flips side, if someone has an extension intolerance, they will tend to sit in an over-arched position. I have no idea why, but about 90% of people seem to sit directly into their specific pain triggers.

Because of the way car seats are built compared to a standard office chair, your knees are often positioned higher than your hips. The setup of the seat back automatically pushes you further into flexion or extension depending on how you are resting, and you are forced to maintain a highly rigid position just to look at the road and drive safely. When you combine this rigid posture with the static nature of a commute, you are locked into an aggravating position for the entire drive.

Practical Steps to Alter Your Commute Mechanics

If you find that even your short local commute is aggravating your back, you can implement a few practical modifications to manage these symptoms and build better spine hygiene:

• Identify Your Pain Profile: First and foremost, you need a precise mechanical assessment by a competent clinician to clearly understand your exact triggers. If you are commuting around Canberra, I offer these precise evaluations at Step Into Health Care in Braddon, or via mobile home-visit assessments within the Gungahlin region.

  
  

• Get Your Spine into Neutral: Once you know the source of your triggers, you must work to eliminate them on the road. If you are flexion intolerant and sitting in a slump makes you worse, you need to get your spine into a neutral position. You can introduce a lumbar roll or spool into your car seat to physically push your spine into a slight extension.

  
  

• Consciously Tilt Your Pelvis: If you do not have a support roll, simply recognize when you are slumping. Try to actively tilt your pelvis forward a little bit, as if you are pointing your hip bones down toward your knees. This action will naturally pull you out of that destructive, flexed position.

  
  

• Apply a Low-Level Abdominal Brace: It is not useful to completely clamp down your abdominal muscles so hard that you cannot breathe. Instead, gently pull a bit of air into your belly and hold a light amount of tension across your abdomen. This brace helps support your spine and bolsters whichever neutral position you have chosen.

  
  

• Decompress When You Exit the Car: Part of the issue with driving is that your spine undergoes prolonged compression. Instead of getting out and immediately rushing off to your day, take a minute to decompress your joints. Stand next to your vehicle, place your hands on the car door frame or the roof, and gently sink your weight down through your hips while keeping your spine straight to open up those sensitive segments.